Semiconductor memory is an electronic data storage device implemented on a semiconductor-based integrated circuit, and generally has much faster access times than other types of data storage technologies. For example, a byte of data can often be written to or read from semiconductor memory within a few nanoseconds, while access times for rotating storage such as hard disks is in the range of milliseconds. For these reasons, among others, semiconductor memory is used as a primary storage mechanism for computer memory to hold data the computer is currently working on, among other uses.